WEEKS 7 – 8

• What Are Puzzle Points?

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• Link to Dr. Juli Dixon’s video about an “Egyptian Fraction” -type problem. Notice how she forbids the words “Numerator” and “Denominator” in order to stimulate children’s actual understanding of the fraction concept presented.

• Link to our Blog post “Why Withhold the Fraction Algorithm?”

“Mental acuity of any kind comes from solving problems yourself, not from being told how to solve them.” ~ Paul Lockhart, A Mathematician’s Lament.

We love this statement– mainly because we’ve seen it work over and over. Students discouraged by their perceived inability to memorize artificial rules or weary of the drudgery of meaningless repetition, suddenly flourish when we slow down, ask them to just look at things, and show respect for their ability to derive their own meanings.

Try slowing down!

This does not mean making your questions easier. Go ahead and make them hard! It just means giving more time.

Start by showing this video by James Tanton about “sharing fractional pieces”.

This activity gets students to rely heavily on communication, which is an integral component of conceptual understanding.

Making sense out of area and perimeter and fascinating patterns in squares.

STATIONS DAY – An introduction to the series of numbers we call squares.

Link to the game ” Dicey Area, Dicey Perimeter” on the “nrich” website. Nrich is one of our favorite math websites.